Nobody knew what to make of the slim, unprepossessing e-reader when he first came to town, all cables and corners. But as the crescendo in ebook sales swells towards a mighty roar, this electronic wizard has cast a spell over romantic fiction, and swept her off her feet.

Romance might have a fusty, old-fashioned image – crinolines and waltzes, tycoons and secretaries – but it seems her match with digital publishing was made in heaven. Mainstream imprint Ebury, part of one of the UK's largest publishing conglomerates Random House, certainly thinks so, and is plunging headfirst into digital romance with a new list, Rouge Romance. Rouge (tagline: "Sexier, longer and 100% more romantic") is no shy first step into the market, however: it debuted last month with eight titles and has committed to publish four titles a month thereafter, to satisfy what it calls "the huge reading appetites" of romance readers.

"Digital is now 10.2% of our sales and growing fast," says Random House deputy chief executive Ian Hudson. "We have an excellent track record in digital publishing in the UK and believe that the agility that comes with direct-to-digital imprints like Rouge is an important part of keeping us at the forefront of the ebook market."

Ebury editorial director Gillian Green agrees. "We know from research commissioned by Random House and by the industry at large that romance readers have been among the first to migrate to ebooks," she says. "One in seven romance readers have already bought an ebook in the last year."

Master of the genre Mills & Boon can testify to this: the romance publisher releases around 100 ebooks a month these days – more than it does in print – after initially launching its ebook programme in September 2008. And announcing its 2010 results in March, Mills & Boon's Canadian parent company Torstar cited the "strong growth of the ebook market", with digital revenues up C$16.1m (£10m) as sales of print books declined.

The rising tide of e-reading devices – and their subsequent drop in price – has been a blessing to many, but perhaps none more so than fans of romance. No longer are they forced to conceal the covers of their latest purchases (The Sultan's Choice, say, or The Temp and the Tycoon) from fellow commuters. Instead, they can follow their heroine's romantic adventures with impunity, safely protected by the anonymity of their e-readers.

"One of the many reasons why we believe romance readers have taken so quickly to ebooks is that there is an inherent snobbery towards romance as a genre in the UK," says Green. "It's sad that this is the case but dedicated e-readers and tablets allow readers to read whatever they like in public without giving anything away about what they are reading."

Mills & Boon author Sharon Kendrick – whose novels are all published in ebook as well as paperback and whose digital sales are "really good" – agrees. "One of the things about reading romance is that slightly furtive thing, the 'oh God, I can't be seen on the train reading a romance'," she says. "If you've got a Kindle then no one knows what you're reading. It's not about embarrassment, really – it's more that you don't want to be judged, and we are often judged by what we read."

Mills & Boon digital director Tim Cooper believes romance's shift towards digital is also down to ease of access. "Our content is habitual in nature and our readers love to start the next book once one is finished. The immediacy of digital facilitates this and allows them to start the next book quicker," he says. "[And] traditionally the Mills & Boon range of titles are only available in the shops for one month and then they are gone. With ebooks they are around forever so the consumer can go back and find a title they have missed, or when they discover a new author or theme go back and enjoy other associated titles."

"[Mills & Boon] are an intense reading experience, and they can be read quickly," adds Kendrick. "People read four to five in a few days so that's a lot of books to carry around."

In America, where ebook sales are well ahead of the UK – growing by over 1,000% over the last three years – romantic and erotic fiction publisher Ellora's Cave says its ebook sales are "skyrocketing". "We've experienced huge growth the past couple of years with the explosive popularity of ebook readers," says Susan Edwards, chief operating officer. "Our readers have been reading ebooks for over a decade now. They were the early adopters of the format."

Edwards, like Cooper, attributes the popularity of digital romance novels to the "voracious" appetites of romance readers, who will race through "several" books a week. "That's a lot of books to buy and store. Ebooks take up a lot less room and busy people don't have to make a trip to a book store to buy them," she says.

But Edwards also feels that "ebooks are an especially good fit for erotic romance because women (and men) can buy them in the privacy of their own homes. Now, with ebook readers, our readers also can read their books in public without anyone knowing what they are reading." She adds that Ellora's Cave also has "a lot of readers who have young children, and digital books are good for them because they don't have to worry about their children accidentally happening upon adult material".

The US publisher is capitalising on the popularity of ebooks, launching its own ebook reader – complete with an ever-so-romantic vibrating key option which Edwards has said is "mostly just for fun. We are, after all, primarily an erotic romance publisher, and we like to have fun with that, so we often inject a note of fun around the sexuality of our content."

The "eCave Reader" debuted last week at the publisher's convention, RomantiCon. "We've done a small run for our first venture so we can see how it works and provide good customer support," said Edwards. "We've already got some really fun ideas for our next one."

It seems the love affair between ebooks and romantic fiction is built to last.